This invention relates to continuous packaging operations and article placement assemblies and processes. Particularly, this invention relates to a turret magazine assembly to provide a continuous supply of articles, such as labels, coupons, pouches, cartons and like objects, for subsequent placement in continuous packaging operations.
Supply magazines are used in packaging operations to hold and provide a specified quantity of articles, such as labels or carton blanks, for example. Typically, the supply magazines are positioned at predetermined locations to cooperate with an article transfer device which may utilize a rotating vacuum cup structure which removes one article at a time from the supply magazine and places each article onto a moving conveyor or onto a object transported on the conveyor, for example. A single magazine, however, requires continued monitoring by the machine operator to ensure that the supply of articles is not depleted during the packaging operation. Continual monitoring, however, is inefficient particularly in high speed packaging operations and any article supply depletion during the operation may result in costly downtime. The turret magazine of the present invention provides a continuous supply of articles and which requires significantly less monitoring on the part of the machine operator.
Although various turret type article supply assemblies have been proposed and used in the article placement art to index and fill a feed magazine structure, these prior art turret supply assemblies have limitations and drawbacks relating to the requirements of high speed packaging operations, and particularly in the high speed transfer of articles. For example, prior art article supply assemblies are typically designed for holding and dispensing specifically shaped articles, such as bottle caps, can covers, cups and bottle carriers. Any associated turret structure, as a result, has specific requirements and, thus, typically has a unique and specific configuration to process these articles. The turret magazine assembly of the present invention relates particularly to providing a continuous supply of labels, coupons, pouches, carton blanks and like articles.